1. Field
Apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a suspension system and a vehicle including the same, and more particularly, to a suspension system and an arm-wheel type robotic vehicle including the same to absorb impacts applied to arm-wheels and control vehicle stability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, industrial robots were designed to perform only designated tasks within a separate segregated workspace due to the possibility of accidents occurring. Recently, however, there are requirements for intelligent robots, which include human-interactive robots, health and welfare robots, office robots, protection robots, construction robots, nuclear robots, educational and game robots, military robots, and space exploration robots, based on data communications. Intelligent robots, which are service robots capable of autonomous movement, require a locomotive or ambulatory function in order to autonomously move to areas where they are needed to perform tasks.
In particular, disaster control robots, military robots, space exploration robots, and other robots that must be mobile and perform tasks in dangerous areas or rough terrains, commonly require an arm-wheel robotic vehicle with a wheel at one end of each leg or arm, respectively. When an arm-wheel robot encounters obstacles such as stairs, it can traverse them by raising its legs onto the stairs and driving and rotating its wheels. When an arm-wheel robotic vehicle travels over uneven ground, many shocks are relayed to its arm-wheels, and the shocks are absorbed by a suspension system.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a suspension system 1 of a related art vehicle. The suspension system 1 is disposed on each wheel approximately vertically to the ground, and each suspension system 1 is altered by a length directly proportional to the amount of shock the vehicle is subjected to when traveling over uneven surfaces. The stability of the vehicle body is determined by the compression of each suspension system 1, and in order to maintain a leaning vehicle body in a horizontal state, a total of four suspension systems 1 must be controlled at different rates according to the leaning of the body. Such stability control, however, is not easy to accomplish with this suspension system 1 of the related art vehicle. Accordingly, when traveling on a sloped surface, the inclination of a vehicle body corresponds to the angle of the sloped surface, thereby destabilizing the vehicle body. Also, because a vertically disposed suspension system 1 is a structure that raises the vehicle body upwards from the bottom, the center of gravity of the vehicle body is raised, thereby also destabilizing the vehicle body.